Southern Californians used 8 percent more water in May than last year, a bump related to soaring temperatures and faith in a drought-busting El Niño that made conservation seem less urgent, water experts said Wednesday.

A water use increase in the Los Angeles and San Diego urban area was the worst performance of any region in the state. Second-worst was the region that includes the Northern Sierra Nevada, which used 5 percent more water.

The survey of 400 urban water agencies conducted by the State Water Resources Control Board also found the San Francisco Bay Area reduced water by 5 percent, and the Sacramento area used 13 percent less water. Tied for a 10 percent drop were the areas near the San Joaquin River and the Central Coast.

In justifying adding a $500 fine for over watering by urban users, the state board reported seeing less water conservation up and down the state between February and April “due to the belief by many that further wet weather is on the way and conservation is not necessary,” according to the report.

The report is referring to predictions of a strong El Niño, a warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean at that time. Since then, national climatologists have backed away from that forecast, saying there’s still about a 78 percent chance of an El Niño this winter but one that will be weak or moderate, not strong.

Other theories as to why Southern California lagged behind Northern California in water savings in May centered on the obvious: It has been much hotter this May than last May, causing Southern Californians to water extra-parched lawns longer and more frequently.

Water managers say Southern Californians have adjusted by installing water-stingy toilets, showers, washing machines and dishwashers during the past decade, but now they must turn to reducing outdoor water use, which amounts to 50 percent or more of all urban water usage.

When talking about meeting the governor’s 20 percent reduction quota, many said that can only happen if lawns are allowed to go brown.

“The only way people of Southern California are going to make that reduction is by turning off the sprinklers,” said Kenneth Manning, executive director of the Main San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority and former CEO of the Chino Basin Watermaster.

Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District, the largest water wholesaler in the United States, says the state water board is using the wrong benchmark to measure conservation. From the start of the drought in 2007 to present time, demand from MWD water is 15 percent less, said Bob Muir, MWD spokesman.

“We believe we are seeing conservation,” he said Wednesday.

Likewise, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reports a 17 percent savings in water use since the summer of 2009, said Penny Falcon, conservation manager. When targeting residential use only, savings reached 24 percent, she said.

However, Richard Hansen, general manager of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont, said after seeing 25 percent conservation the last four years, water use is rising.

“Some of that was attributed to the recession. Now our demands are back up,” he said. “It is truly weather-related.”

Hansen, who has nearly four decades of experience, has seen many droughts in California. But as the area enters its third straight year of drought, warmer temperatures in winter and spring compounded the problem.

“We were in the ninth-hottest period on record. We really didn’t have a winter; it wasn’t as cold and certainly not as wet, so maybe people kept those sprinklers on,” he said.

Some say Southern California will see more water conservation in the next six months as lawns are turned into drought-resistant landscapes. MWD is offering $2 a square foot to swap out lawns for a xeriscape.

MWD has seen a big jump in requests for turf removal assistance and incentives, Muir said. In June, MWD has applications out for $3 million in rebates.

“This is a market transformation. It is a lot like you are changing a lifestyle,” he said.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.